Dallas-based JMJ Development received conceptual approval Wednesday [Jan 16 2019] from the Historic and Design Review Commission for its planned 290-foot Villita Tower, bringing downtown a step closer to gaining the new 24-story apartment building.

The mixed-use tower's design features 226 apartments, with retail and restaurant space on Villita Street and along the neighboring River Walk. The tower portion of the project will be on a 0.35-acre plot at 112 Villita St. The plan includes tearing down the neighboring single-story building at 126 Villita St., which houses a few law firms, to make way for a five-story parking deck for residents. The project was designed by Dallas-based FAB Studio in collaboration with San Antonio-based B&A Architects and Rialto Studio.

JMJ Development has been in the public eye since at least February 2016, when it was reported that the developer wanted to put a 30-story tower on the same site. The company announced the redesigned tower in July 2018.

During its initial conception, the tower was planned with rent of $2.40 per square foot, making it one of the most expensive in downtown. While a revised price per square foot has not been announced for the new tower, the development team told the HDRC Wednesday that it is exploring an affordable option to qualify for the city's Center City Housing Incentive Policy, or CCHIP.

Reinstated in December, the program was implemented to incentivize developers to add affordable housing units to their downtown projects, in exchange for property tax and utility savings. The city announced on Wednesday that since the program was reinstated, it had received four applications for CCHIP incentives totaling 238 proposed affordable units in downtown.

While no price tag was given for Villita Tower, a representative told the HDRC it would be "enormous."

While JMJ is moving ahead with one San Antonio project, it is unclear whether progress has been made on another.

In July, the developer announced that it was planning to build a 14-story hotel on top of the Joske's building at the Shops at Rivercenter. While it was initially reported that the hotel would be branded as a Hard Rock Hotel, JMJ later said it had not signed any branding agreement with Hard Rock.

Dallas-based JMJ Development received conceptual approval Wednesday [Jan 16 2019] from the Historic and Design Review Commission for its planned 290-foot Villita Tower, bringing downtown a step closer to gaining the new 24-story apartment building.

The mixed-use tower's design features 226 apartments, with retail and restaurant space on Villita Street and along the neighboring River Walk. The tower portion of the project will be on a 0.35-acre plot at 112 Villita St. The plan includes tearing down the neighboring single-story building at 126 Villita St., which houses a few law firms, to make way for a five-story parking deck for residents. The project was designed by Dallas-based FAB Studio in collaboration with San Antonio-based B&A Architects and Rialto Studio.

JMJ Development has been in the public eye since at least February 2016, when it was reported that the developer wanted to put a 30-story tower on the same site. The company announced the redesigned tower in July 2018.

During its initial conception, the tower was planned with rent of $2.40 per square foot, making it one of the most expensive in downtown. While a revised price per square foot has not been announced for the new tower, the development team told the HDRC Wednesday that it is exploring an affordable option to qualify for the city's Center City Housing Incentive Policy, or CCHIP.

Reinstated in December, the program was implemented to incentivize developers to add affordable housing units to their downtown projects, in exchange for property tax and utility savings. The city announced on Wednesday that since the program was reinstated, it had received four applications for CCHIP incentives totaling 238 proposed affordable units in downtown.

While no price tag was given for Villita Tower, a representative told the HDRC it would be "enormous."

While JMJ is moving ahead with one San Antonio project, it is unclear whether progress has been made on another.

In July, the developer announced that it was planning to build a 14-story hotel on top of the Joske's building at the Shops at Rivercenter. While it was initially reported that the hotel would be branded as a Hard Rock Hotel, JMJ later said it had not signed any branding agreement with Hard Rock.

Dallas developer JMJ now wants to build two apartment towers—one with SAHA’s help
JULY 25, 2019 BY BEN OLIVO
San Antonio Heron

[IMG][/IMG]

It appears the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) is becoming one of downtown’s chief development players.

Through two nonprofit entities it created, SAHA is partnering with JMJ Development of Dallas on the St. Mary’s Tower, a 24-story apartment high-rise with a rooftop pool on the southwest corner of Villita and South St. Mary’s streets.

SAHA’s involvement grants the public-private partnership a property tax exemption on the tower. In exchange, according to state law, the partnership will offer half of the 250 units to households making 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), or less; the other half will be market-rate priced. JMJ CEO Tim Barton said in an email that he’s been asked to offer some units at 60 percent AMI, presumably by SAHA, but he didn’t give specifics.

What’s AMI?
The area median income (AMI) for a family of four in the greater San Antonio area (Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe and Wilson counties) is $71,000, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Here’s how it breaks down for lower-income households:
» 80% – $56,800
» 70% – $49,700
» 60% – $42,600
» 50% – $35,500
» 40% – $28,400
» 30% – $21,300
SAHA did not respond to an interview request for this report.

“By targeting this AMI level, the St. Mary’s Tower will be able to offer affordable housing within walking distance for an extremely large population of professional and service-oriented employees working in downtown San Antonio,” the authority said in a recent agenda.

The $62 million tower will consist of 17 stories of apartments on top of a seven-story, 290-space parking garage. The apartments will have private balconies and island kitchens.

[IMG][/IMG]

JMJ is still proceeding with the development of a 24-story riverfront tower, consisting of 226 market-rate units, across the street, which it’s calling Villita Tower. SAHA is not involved in this project, Barton said.

Hmm Vidorra was supposed to be twins, hopefully this doesn't end up just being one tower also.

I understand what you’re sentiment here is, but these are two different situations. Vidorra was originally proposed as twin structures and became a single structure because of the housing collapse. This development was originally a single tower that is now a dual tower proposal.

I prefer to have the two shorter ones since the site is so close to the Tower Life building, as it is San Antonio's gem (Texas's gem, really) and I'd rather not have its view blocked by a taller average building.

Wow, that's great news. It's kind of bittersweet, though, because of the site. I hate the thought of the Tower Life Building being hidden on the skyline. It's a good bit taller than those buildings will be, but it has lighting that starts a good ways below the crown. I hope the residents don't complain about the lights.

There are still a lot of vacant lots around these towers. Hopefully a domino like effect starts once these get rolling.

Definitely...

(Imagery from Google Earth)

One view of urban design is thinking of downtown areas as urban outdoor rooms defined by façade walls and where people gather or inhabit, but this "room" is instead a massive parking lot 1,400 ft. on its longest unobstructed diagonal and some 980 ft. wide with river view frontage. Even the single-story car dealerships and gas stations that in a bygone era were at the sharply triangular corners have been paved over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAguy

Nice but it would have been better to have a 40+ tower.

I almost wish "the dominoes" toppled such that the two towers instead spread out into 4-story buildings filling out most of the blocks while leaving largely unobstructed views. However, I too will happy to take two proposed towers, especially over that hideous low-rise garage they had last shown, and hope they help spur further development in this area.

The version we're seeing in this new rendering of the Villita Tower along with the Saint Mary's Tower seems to suggest that the mechanical screen is taller than in the previous version we saw of the Villita Tower in the earlier renderings. So, that likely means that it's slightly taller than the 284 foot height we have from the building elevations. I'm not sure how much of a gain it is over the actual mechanical roof, but the screen itself appears to be 7 or 8 feet taller than in the previous version. The Saint Mary's Tower also appears to be a bit shorter than the Villita Tower based on the renderings, even though both towers are 24 floors.

Anyway, I did a model of the new Saint Mary's Tower, and I updated the footprint of the Villita Tower to make it smaller as the site map had indicated. I had made it too long originally.